The Poltergeist Detectives
by Dogtooth3030
Summary: The Poltergeist Detectives are visited in the middle of the night by ghosts - ghosts who are desperate for their help. Their best friend ran off after being chased by an evil ghost and now she's missing. Can the Detectives help find the missing ghost before an evil man's plot comes together - with the missing ghost, Sakura, at the center of it? Eventual ItaSaku, modern setting
1. Chapter 1

She swore, if she had known that Minato snored _this_ much, she would never had married the man.

But this presented her with a perfect opportunity. Did he really expect to steal her ramen and get away with it, did he? She had hoped the Governor of Konoha was smarter than that, but here he was, sleeping unprotected. She thanked the gods that Minato could be so daft sometimes, trusting Kushina when asleep. She was sure to take advantage of that.

Kushina knew that, while he didn't absolutely love ramen like her, that man loved his sweets as equally as he loved his wife. Being oh, so careful, she snuck out of bed and into his drawer where he stashed his sweets and put them in her drawer. It was so simple, but so devious. He would be totally unsuspecting until he had a craving (he was worse than Kushina during her pregnancy). When that happened, all she had to do was sit back and grin while he accused everyone in the house. Only he would never accuse his wife (he wasnt that stupid), so that left Naruto to take the brunt of Minato's wrath. But in her opinion, he _still_ hadn't cleaned his room, so he deserved it. In her opinion, it worked out beautifully.

Who said revenge wasn't sweet? It still wasn't as good as ramen, though.

Suddenly the bedroom, which had been pleasantly warm, turned ice cold, so cold that Kushina could see her breath come out in small puffs of white cloud. Not one to be alarmed easily, she glanced at the window. Closed, as always. Strange. Confused now, the grey eyed woman got out of bed and out the door. Perfectly normal temperature. Even stranger. A little worried now, she turned to walk back into the bedroom when she saw something that made her entire body freeze in a terror that she hadn't felt before.

Right above her husband, a teenage girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail was staring curiously at the sleeping man. But that wasn't what made her blood run cold. It the fact that the _transparent_ girl was _floating_ above his head. She was about to scream when a memory flashed in her mind.

_"__Hey, Mom, I want you to remember something important for me, ok?"_

_"__Sure, sweetie. What is it?"_

_"__You know my 'profession', don't you?"_

_"__I've never really thought of looking for ghosts as a 'profession' before, but, yeah."_

_"__If you are to ever encounter a ghost, ever, there is one important thing you need to do."_

_"__What's that?"_

_"__Get me."_

_'__Get Naruto?'_ Kushina thought worriedly. _'But what if he gets hurt? But, he does this all the time. Oh, he and I are so gonna have a talk about his 'profession' when this – this_ thing _goes away.'_ Stepping away slowly, she glanced down the hallway at Naruto's door at the end before looking at Minato and the ghost again. The blue eyed man was still sleeping peacefully, not quite snoring but not quite quietly either, while the girl was just watching him. She seemed fascinated by the way he breathed in the cold air. Deciding that Minato wasn't in any immediate danger, she inched toward the end of the hallway until she was out of the ghost's sight before sprinting quietly to the door with the ramen smell coming from underneath.

Pushing the door open, Kushina dashed to her sleeping son's side, shaking him furiously, "Wake up! Wake up, quickly! Hurry!" She glanced over shoulder toward her bedroom before looking back at Naruto, who was yawning and stretching tiredly.

"Mm? What's up?" He asked sleepily. However, when he saw his mother's face tight with worry, the Uzumaki teen knew something was amiss. "Mom, what's going on?" He whispered urgently, getting out of bed already.

The shorter woman was shaking in fear, something Naruto had never seen in her before. "I-In the b-bedroom. I-It's a-a g-g-ghost." The last sentence ended in a scared whisper. At this, the blonde's cerulean eyes widened and he gasped.

His face was one of shock before his mother's near sobs of terror shook him out of his stupor. Quickly grabbing her shoulders, he turned her and sat her on his bed, "I want you to stay here, ok?" He said seriously, "Ghosts can be unpredictable but usually harmless. Just let me handle it and I'll get my team here first thing in the morning. Promise."

Kushina nodded shakily and whispered, "Go. Your father is still asleep and the g-ghost is there, watching him. I think she's intrigued or something."

"Ok," he said before setting off down the hall and toward his parents' bedroom. And, sure enough, just as his mother said, there was a girl who appeared to be about his age. She was wearing a purple tank top and matching purple shorts with purple and white striped knee high socks. The blonde looked to be a normal girl. Naruto wondered how she died.

So as not to startle her, he made sure to steep on the creaky floorboard just outside his parent's bedroom door. The girl whipped around quickly, light blue eyes wide in surprise. Then Naruto saw how she had died.

There was a slit in her throat that covered her entire front in dark red. From years of experience, Naruto managed to keep the look of shock off of his face. When the ghost made no move to talk, the Uzumaki stepped forward slowly, cautiously. She made no move still. He took a couple more steps. Still no movement besides her floating up and down slightly. When Naruto was a few yards from her, he decided to speak.

"Who are you?" He asked quietly.

The girl frowned at him, "Ino. Okay, my turn for a question. Is this the Uzumaki house?"

The blonde male stiffened slightly. What could this ghost want? "Maybe. Depends on why you want to know."

Ino looked frustrated, "Look here, buddy. I came here because another ghost invaded my home and he isn't as nice as me. So, me and my friends had to leave and now I don't know where one of them is. I was hoping that this was the house of Uzumaki Naruto, one of the Poltergeist Detectives. He's the closest one to my house and I really need to find my friend." Her eyes sparkled in faint hope, "Are you Naruto?"

He hesitated slightly before answering, "Yeah, I'm Naruto."

The girl looked immensely relieved, "Thank God! I really need your help, Naruto-san. Please."

"Okay, I'll help. But I do have a question. Why were you staring at my father?"

"Oh, that. Well, I-I had only seen glimpses of you and I couldn't tell if he was you or not. Besides, I haven't seen a living person in ten years."

He nodded, motioning her out of the room and down the hallway to his room where Kushina was. "Okay, I'll call everyone in the morning, but right now, I need to show my mom that you aren't a danger to us. You really scared her you know."

The blonde looked guilty, "I didn't mean to, I was trying to find you!"

They then walked into Naruto's bright orange room that was littered with dirty clothes and empty instant ramens. The ghostly teen scrunched her nose up in distaste. She would have gone the extra distance and danger to see the cuter one if she had known that this one was such a slob. And if she hadn't been chased out of her home by a stranger ghost. Even if the stranger ghost was kinda cute.

"Oh, Naruto, you're – " Kushina then caught sight of the ghost right behind her son and nearly screamed for the third time that night before the blonde male covered her mouth just as she drew in breath.

"It's okay, Mom. I promise." When he was sure that she wasn't going to yell, he let go of her mouth and continued talking, "Her name is Ino and all she wants is my help to find her friend. I wanted you to see her for yourself and see that she's not going to hurt any of us. She's just lost and confused."

The redheaded mother seemed to calm down some and looked into the blonde ghost's eyes. Ino smiled reassuringly and bowed low, "My apologies for startling you, ma'am. I just want to find my friend."

Kushina smiled faintly, "Well, that's alright, honey. I've never seen a . . . ghost before."

"It's okay," Ino smiled again, "I haven't seen a living human in ten years."

Naruto gently pushed his mother out towards the door, "See? Everything is alright. I'm gonna go to bed and sort this out tomorrow. G'night, Mom." With a kiss on the cheek, Kushina went back to bed, albeit, a little disturbed.

The Uzumaki turned and trudged back to his warm, inviting bed before collapsing on it tiredly. The other blonde glanced at him derisively, "What are you doing?"

"Going to bed," Naruto replied without lifting his head from the pillows. "Why?"

"What about me?" Ino wailed quietly, careful not to wake Kushina up again. "What am I supposed to do all night?!"

He lifted his head and glared at the ghost, "You've been dead for ten years and yet you don't have something to do during the night?"

"Listen, you," she snarled with dark fury coloring her tone, "I don't know what I did to make you so mad at me besides waking you up from a night of sleep, but my best friend is in danger. The man that came to our house is no ordinary ghost. He scared her, he really scared her. I just want to find her before anything bad happens. And, besides," here, her sky blue eyes seemed smothered in sadness, "I usually talk to her at night."

Naruto was about to apologize when he saw a silvery liquid, reflecting the full moon shining in through his open window, fall and silently hit the floor before vanishing. She was crying, tears streaking down her cheeks and her hands curled into fists. He felt bad about snapping at her; it wasn't her fault that he got woken up in the middle of the night. It was his job to help ghosts and that job apparently didn't end when they left base.

"I'm sorry. There is no excuse for me getting mad at you. I'm sorry," he repeated softly.

A memory sprang unbidden from the depths of her mind and she froze under the power of it.

_"__No, Mommy, don't go! Please don't go!"_

_"__I'm sorry, sugar, it's not your fault, I promise. I'll see you one day."_

_"__No, NO! Mommy, no, please don't leave me here! Whatever happened to make you leave, just fix it! Please don't go, Mommy, PLEASE!"_

_"__I'm sorry."_

_"__Mommy *sob* don't go *sob*." _

She sniffed, "Whatever, just go to bed." With that, she drifted over to the window and hovered there, staring out the window, almost as if searching for her friend.

* * *

"Wake up! Rise and shine!"

Naruto groaned, "Five more minutes, Dad."

With a startled yelp, Naruto felt his blankets being ripped off of him and then the mattress flipped. The end result was the blonde lying flat on his face, whiskered cheek pressed against the wooden floor, with the heavy mattress lying on top of him. He groaned when the mattress was flung off of him and he being dragged by his morning-lover of a father .

"Rise and shine, son. You have to help that poor ghost today."

The teens cerulean blue eyes widened, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Wait, how do you know about her?"

"Your mother told me," Minato explained, still dragging his son down the hallway and closer to the stairway. "I think it's the perfect opportunity for you to show us how mature you are, son." And then he let him go at the top of the steps and went downstairs where the smell of . . . you guessed it, ramen, forced Naruto to 'rise and shine', as his father had put it.

"Morning, sweetie," Kushina greeted when he stumbled down the stairs. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Good morning, Mom. Good morning, Ino." He nodded a greeting to the translucent blonde who had materialized behind his mother. Said mother whirled around, a hand on her heart that was, no doubt, beating rapidly, and Minato stood up from the chair he was sitting in, looking at the ghost with an expression of near mistrust.

"You," she pointed to the phone, "call them," her stare intensified into a glare that was becoming very familiar, "now."

"Can't you let me eat first?" Naruto whined pitifully. He never worked well without breakfast.

She continued glaring at him before growling at him, "Can't you do both?"

The Uzumaki looked horrified, "Of course not! Food has to come first! Always!"

The blonde ghost narrowed her pale eyes, but said nothing more before floating over to a chair and sitting down, focusing on the patterns of the reddish wood. The family was silent but the girl didn't seem to notice, lost in the years of memories, most likely concerning her friend.

_'__Please, please, let us find you in one piece. Please. Don't let him find you again.'_

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**This is the beginning of something that I started a looong time ago. I have a couple of other chapters that are done and I'm working on it, but I won't post another chapter until I get something like 5 reviews. If not, then no second chapter. So, please . . . review! :)  
**

**~Dogtooth**


	2. Chapter 2

"Wake up, honey. It's 8:00."

With a moan, a raven haired teen opened his obsidian eyes to meet another pair of black eyes, glinting in warm-heartedness.

"Morning, Mom," Sasuke greeted, yawning and sitting up to stretch his muscles. "Did we get any calls?"

"Nope. Call free," she smiled. "Although your brother came by this morning. He said he wanted to talk to you about something. I think it had something to do with your jobs."

"Ok, thanks, Mom." She left the room and he got ready, showering quickly and changing into his normal clothes, a dark blue t-shirt and a black jacket with dark jeans. After styling his hair just the way he liked it, Sasuke went downstairs to find his family already eating breakfast.

"Morning Father, Itachi," the teen said, bowing to his father. They both nodded to him and continued eating. Quickly scarfing down his French toast and scrambled eggs with sausage, Sasuke put his plates away and followed his brother into the living room.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked, skipping all small talk. Itachi did the same.

"I've been feeling a presence here since late, late last night. It doesn't seem dangerous, but I don't want to take any chances. I wanted you to call everyone else while I try to find – "

"AHH!"

The elder Uchiha was interrupted by a female scream. A scream that sounded suspiciously like his mother. With a glance, the both ran to the kitchen only to come to a halt the sight before them.

Mikoto was trembling in terror, hiding behind Fugaku, who was standing in front of his wife with a knife in his hand. Across from them was a translucent teenage girl with long dark purple hair and a white baggy t-shirt with grey sweats. Crimson liquid streamed down the side of her face from a bullet hole in her right temple. Her pearl eyes were wide in surprise and her hands were raised in a non-threating gesture. Fugaku kept his tense stance. When the two brothers burst in, three heads simultaneously turned in their direction. The room was filled with deafening silence and it was apparent that none of the Uchiha's were going to talk first, so the ghost decided to go first.

"P-Please, I need your h-help. My name is H-Hinata and I'm looking for my f-friend. Me and a few others were d-driven out of our h-home, the old house a few r-roads from here, by another g-ghost. He really scared our friend and she ran before w-we could do anything. We've t-tried looking for her for about a w-week, but no luck. Then we saw s-something about the Poltergeist Detectives and decided to give it a try. Please, h-help us."

There was still quiet, everyone trying to digest that information, until Itachi broke the silence, "Where are your other friends?"

Hinata jerked slightly, obviously not expecting him to speak so soon and nervously began to push her two pointer fingers together, an old habit, "W-Well, Tenten is at the H-Hyuuga house and Ino's at the Uzumaki's." Even dead and see-through, she still managed to blush furiously. Itachi raised an eyebrow at this and tucked it away into the back of his brain. However, something about her seemed to trigger a memory. Itachi was sure he had seen her before, but now wasn't the time to track that memory down. Wherever he had remembered her from could wait.

"Ok," he said, "Come with me and we'll try to help you. Sasuke," Itachi turned slightly to his younger brother, "Go call everyone else and get Mother and Father into another room. I don't want any distractions while I interrogate," here, Hinata squeaked in fear, "the ghost."

_'__Why couldn't I have gone somewhere else?'_ Hinata thought sadly, _'I never remembered that people could be so . . . scary.'_

"Come here," Itachi beckoned. The ghost timidly drifted toward him, trembling slightly when he turned his onyx eyes on her. "Stop shaking," he ordered. "You're supposed to be the scary one here."

She blinked her pearl eyes in surprise. Huh. She had spent so much time with other ghosts that she forgot that the living were scared of them. Or supposed to be at least, "Then why aren't y-you scared?" She asked curiously.

"Hn, I've seen many ghosts over the years. You're harmless, weak even," the tall Uchiha replied, not even looking at her.

Hinata froze when she heard those words, triggering a forgotten memory.

_"__No! Dad, stop it! Please, stop it, stop it! Please!"_

_"__Why?! You're just a pathetic excuse for a daughter! Weak! Weak!"_

_"__AH! No, Stoppit, Daddy, stoppit! Ahhh!"_

"Hinata!"

"Ah! Don't hurt me!" The purple haired ghost screamed and raised her arms up in a protective gesture over her face, which was twisted in an expression of severe terror. Itachi stopped moving and stood still.

_'__She . . . she thought I was going to hurt her?'_ He thought in confusion. The teen was still whimpering in fear, full out shaking so bad he thought that she was having a seizure if she could. The Uchiha slowly pulled his hand away from where he had been waving it in front of her face when she was unresponsive to his voice. _'She must have been having a memory recall,'_ he thought in surprise.

Memory recall in a ghost happens when the ghost died a violent death, either emotionally or physically, and in an automatic self-defense mechanism, they forget the trauma of their past life so they can have a second chance. Certain words can trigger certain memories, be the words happy or sad or devastating. It was hard to tell for Hinata. She was obviously feeling terror from something, but since ghosts harbor no wounds except the killing one, it was hard to tell if she had been abused as a child, as the brilliant Uchiha suspected from her reaction. But for now, he had to get her mind off of her old memories. They do no good now and she could cause some potential damage in her distressed state.

"Hinata, calm down. It's Uchiha Itachi, not whoever you're thinking of. Calm down," Itachi stated as soothingly as he could. It seemed to work as she lowered her arms and her shaking calmed slightly, opening one pearl eye slowly.

She then seemed to realize what she had done right in front of him and she blushed fifteen different shades of transparent red, "U-Uchiha-san! I'm so s-sorry! I don't know what h-happened."

"I do. But you're not here to talk about that, right?" She nodded her affirmative, "Alright then, tell me what your friend's name is?" Itachi asked.

"S-Sakura. She has p-pink hair and bright green eyes. She's wearing a dark red t-shirt and dark r-red sweats."

The black haired man nodded, his pen making the only noise in the room as it scribbled quickly the information she had just told him. He glanced up again when she said nothing else and then felt a little awkward. She was crying, the tears mingling with the blood on her face. Itachi shifted slightly, unsure as to what to do. He had never dealt with a crying woman before. He was about to say something when his brother, Sasuke, walked into the living room.

"Itachi, I found something I think you should see. Just him," he added when Hinata looked up hopefully.

"Stay here," the elder Uchiha ordered to the girl. She nodded and began to wipe away her tears. The brothers began walking down the long hallway and into the TV room, "What is it, Sasuke?" He asked.

"You know how mother always records every Amber Alert so that even if she sees something years later, she has a video to go by?" Itachi nodded, already guessing as to where his little brother was going with this. "Well, she remembered something and began to dig through her old videos from about fifteen years ago. She found something." Sasuke walked to the TV and pressed play. What the older brother saw nearly made his blood run cold.

_"__Police have been searching non-stop for sixteen year old Hyuuga Hinata for three days. Only just a few hours ago, they found her in an abandoned house a few streets over, shot in the temple and a gun found in her hand. Nothing confirmed yet, but police suspect suicide. A note was found with her, reading '_**_He'll Never Find Me Alive!_** _' Police suspect her father abused her, but nothing confirmed yet. The investigation is still on-going. In other ne – "._

With a click of the power button, Itachi set the remote down with a stony face, "I already suspected this," he murmured. "But this just confirms it. She had a memory recall earlier."

Sasuke's eyes widened and then he nodded, "I called the dobe and he met Ino last night. Scared the crap outta Uzumaki-san, too, from what he told me. He's coming over here with the other ghost. I called Neji, and he hasn't seen Tenten yet. His house is the farthest away, so it would take longer for a ghost to get there, especially in the daytime." He then paused and reached for another DVD, "I found other Amber Alert tapes for Yamanaka Ino and Tottori Tenten. Whaddya want to do, aniki?"

Itachi picked up the DVD labeled 'Amber Alert: Tottori Tenten' and asked, "Nothing on Sakura?"

The obsidian eyed boy shook his head, "No, nothing on her. I looked back as far as I could, but nothing."

"Ok," the ponytailed teen said, "We'll watch these with the rest of the Detectives. Did you call them?"

"I got Naruto and Neji. Kisame told me that he would call the rest of the Akatsuki for me. They should be here soon."

"Good. Where are Mother and Father?" Itachi asked.

Sasuke replied, "In their bedroom. Mom's pretty shaken; Dad's trying to comfort her."

"Hn," just then, they both heard the door open and heard the sound of two people arguing. One was obviously Naruto while the other one, while just as loud, was unidentifiable.

"You call THAT driving?! Kami, what has the world come to?"

"Hey, you're just jealous of my bad-ass driving skills. It got us here in half the time that YOU probably would have taken!"

"You don't know that! Besides, I would have gotten us here in the same time as you WITHOUT running exactly twelve stop signs and five red lights! It's a wonder that you didn't get pulled over."

"I got friends in the police department and my dad is an important government official. They wouldn't pull me over."

"I wish they would. If I could die again, I would have died from a heart attack already!"

"Well, it was your decision to ride with me in the first place!"

"I can't just waltz out of your house in broad daylight by myself! I need another ghost and I usually go with Sakura!"

"Then stop complaining!"

"Then stop with the reckless driving!"

Walking and floating in the doorway, was Naruto and a ghost who was glaring at the blonde, and vice versa. Sasuke snorted in distain, "Dobe, shut up. You're annoying."

Said ramen loving teen whirled around to face his best friend, "Teme, what do you want with _this_," he hissed the last word out, pointing blatantly at Ino. Her baleful glare intensified tenfold.

"Hey! I have a name, you know," she snarled out in anger. Her nerves were already on edge and this idiot was only making it worse.

"Oh, sorry, _pig_." Unfortunately, that idiot seemed to live up to his name a little too well.

With a sudden shrill scream of fury, she launched herself at him, only to be held back by the sudden appearance of Hinata, who was struggling to hold back the furious blonde.

"You can't call me that, you turd! Only Sakura's allowed to call me that!" Her shriek made all the males wince slightly in pain.

"I-Ino, Ino, c-calm down, p-please," Hinata begged, still struggling to hold back the furious bloodied ghost from attacking in blind anger. Her white eyes glanced at Naruto, who was looking slightly scared, and tried again, "I-I'm sure h-he didn't m-mean it. H-He knows n-nothing a-about us." At these words, the blonde calmed down slightly, no longer struggling and the Hyuuga let her go hesitatingly. But she kept on glaring at the Uzumaki, who looked wary of her.

"Naruto, I think you should leave. I'll talk to Ino-san and Hinata-san," Itachi dared to break the tense silence first, giving the blonde teen a look that had him nearly racing out the room. The Uchiha turned and whispered quietly into his younger brother's ear, and then he nodded and left in the footsteps of his best friend.

With a noise of simmering anger, Ino sat herself down in a chair while Hinata reminded standing, glancing around nervously. Whether for better or worse, they had found the Poltergeist Detectives. Well, most of them, anyways.

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**Reviews = More Chapters!**


	3. Chapter 3

If Neji was anything, it was proud and ambitious. Proud that he had already gotten so much trust from his uncle after Hinata passed. That was all the Hyuugas called it. She passed. Not she committed suicide by blowing her brains out with a nine millimeter. In Neji's point of view, it was because she couldn't handle the pressure of being Uncle Hiashi daughter.

And that was just the way Neji wanted it. The less they talked about Hinata, the better. Hiashi was in agreement with him, too.

Since she passed, a lot had gotten done. They had demolished the gazebo she had loved to make room for a new office for Uncle and currently, the Hyuugas were one of the wealthiest families in town. Uncle Hiashi owned the most in-demand eye glass company in the nation. Not only did they make the best glasses out there, they made all kinds of lenses for the military, NASA, the government – no wonder they were filthy rich.

Neji had just gotten a lecture from Hiashi on business handling and was walking back to his quarters when the air got cold. It was something he was used to but never at home. And never _this_ cold. Before he could get his phone and call anyone, like Itachi or another Detective, the cold manifested itself right behind him. He breathed in and out, watching his breath curl like smoke, not daring to say anything. He didn't need to.

"I didn't know little girls were allowed outside by themselves. Where's your Daddy? Know where mine is? Your uncle would, coward." Slowly, Neji turned around and saw angry, _transparent_ brown eyes. That fact calmed him instantly - ghosts couldn't hurt him - and he smirked.

"Oh, he would now? Depends on what your dad did to deserve death." Her lips curled in a state of defiance. Tenten wasn't going to let some pampered brat get into her head.

"In about thirty seconds, you're going to receive a call from the Poltergeist Detectives. Answer it and I'm sure he will explain it better than I could."

While Neji reached for his cell phone, he chuckled, "Oh, yeah? And why can't you explain it?"

She slowly became more and more transparent, "Because every time I look at you, I see Hinata's murderer." Then, she vanished before Neji had a chance to say anything.

True to what she said, Itachi called thirty seconds later. "Neji, we have a situation going on, but I need to know first if you've seen Tenten."

Neji could barely talk, "Yeah, I saw one, but she treated me like a rat before dissapearing."

Another voice began talking and Neji could tell by the way her voice made the reception crackle a little bit that she was a ghost. "Yeah, she drew the short straw and had to find you, and she isn't going to like you at all. Not that I can blame her," she muttered.

Itachi wrestled the phone back from her, "Listen, Neji, you need to make her realize that it's important she comes with you. We need both of you here."

Ghosts who have been dead for awhile can preform tricks, like throwing their voice. Neji realized that the ghost who visited him must have been dead a while because even though he couldn't see her, her voice sounded clearly into the cell phone.

"I'm going to follow him, Ino, okay! But I have no intention of being anywhere near him again! It makes me sick just looking at him."

"Tenten, I understand, I get it! But this is for Sakura, for our glue. We _can't_ lose her, not like this."

There was a pause before Neji felt that nearly unbearable coldness take over the garden he was standing in again. "Fine," Tenten sounded defeated, "fine, but don't expect me to like it."

"See ya in a few." The line hung up before Neji could. He could feel the presence behind him, disgruntled, and he pondered the reason for the ghosts disliking him so much. Or why they were so important anyway. He turned around to get a good look at her.

With crossed arms, Tenten looked like she had been ready to go to bed. However, her plain white shirt and red sweats were decorated with bullet holes. And not the kind that were put there accidentally, either. Neji wanted to ask what had happened but she beat him to it, "Like I'm going to tell a little jerk like you. Let's go, my best friend is waiting."

Normally, Neji wouldn't have taken any orders from anyone but Itachi, but this is what Itachi told him to do. So he scowled at her and made his way toward his car. When he got in, Tenten materialized in the passenger seat. "I'm only here to make sure you get there as quickly as possible. Now, hurry!"

They made it there in five minutes, _nearly_ good enough for Tenten, who seemed to hate Neji even more with every move he made. As soon as he parked, Tenten vanished and he could only assume she had gone inside. He followed a bit slower and gave a polite nod to the adult Uchiha's who were sitting at the kitchen table.

When Neji entered the living room, three ghosts were huddled to one side, two of them (one being Tenten) seeming to shield someone from him. The other was a glaring blonde. Before he could question his teammates about why he was called, the blonde ghost beat him to it.

"Alright, now that the main group is here, I can go on to explain stuff now. For the sake of him," she jabbed a finger over her shoulder at Neji, "I'll introduce ourselves."

"Ino," Tenten warned, an alarmed look on her face, "but-"

"It has to happen sooner or later and I'd rather get it over with now. I'm Ino, that's Tenten, and behind her is Hinata." Ino spoke so fast that Neji barely registered what she said, but all he had to understand was 'Hinata' and he could guess who the third ghost was.

"Hinata-sama?" Neji struggled to peer through Tenten to see his cousin, but she moved protectively in front of her, clear brown eyes flashing vehemently.

Itachi stepped in, his face a picture of annoyance, "Enough. Whatever is between you two can wait. We have a missing ghost and a job to do." When he was sure that Neji wouldn't attempt to pursue whatever that ghost was to him, he continued to everyone in the room: Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, and the three ghosts, "Our job is to help these ghosts get their friend back and help determine what caused her to run in the first place. I've already sent the Akatsuki scouting some places that are frequented by the missing ghost, named Sakura. Understand."

Everyone, including Neji, agreed. No matter what issues arose, they all had a duty to help ghosts and, damn it, they were going to do it to the best of their abilities. No matter what.

* * *

Her terror seemed to claw at her heart and she knew that she couldn't make it back to her home, not in this condition. That man - that horrible, awful, hateful ghost - must have done something to her. With every move, images came back to haunt her with such persistence that no matter how much she tried to repress them, they ended up consuming her conscience until she collapsed to the ground, clutching her head. How ironic, a ghost being haunted by the memories that composed made her childhood.

They flashed through her mind as fast as death, but she could see every one of them clearly. The first was her foster father and his murderer.

_A terrible crash made a little girl's head jerk up from her place at the kitchen table, coloring. The girl couldn't be older than six, with pink hair and green eyes that sparkled with curiosity. Peering around the corner as best she could, the girl called, "Father? What was that? Is everything okay?" She had just slid out of the chair when another boom came from the living room, and a man's horrible, dying scream froze her in her place._

_Her gut churning in unfathomable worry, the candy haired girl inched forward toward the door, not abandoning caution in the face of destruction, even if she had no idea what was going on. However, as she glanced into the living room, the girl couldn't hold back her bloodcurdling scream. Her father, the man who had raised her since she was a baby, was lying on the floor with a pool of blood surrounding his head. Obviously dead._

_With her scream, a man whipped his head around, pale lips splitting in an absolutely sickening grin. The yellow eyes, glassy and soul-chilling, fixed on the petrified little girl with a look of triumph. Standing up from his kneeling position over the kind, dead old man, the murderer cooed, "Hello, little Sakura, hello. Come here, I won't bite." All Sakura needed to see was a hand, pale and drained of life, reaching out to here before she bolted, running as fast as her little legs would carry her. The man tried to spring after her, but he didn't know the area nearly as well as she and as he tried to follow, he slipped in the blood of the man he just murdered._

_As he knew that the little girl was long gone, he roared, "You can't hide from me! Not from me, Sakura!"_

The tears were streaming down her transparent face even before the second memory bombarded her senses.

_Giggling, Ino relayed to Sakura the local gossip at school, to which the homeless orphan responded with howls of laughter and together, the girls made fun of how shallow the world had become. However, the sudden silence outside caught Sakura's attention. "Why did that dog stop barking?"_

_Ino, rolling her sky blue eyes, proceeded to pull her white and purple striped socks back up to her knees, "You're worried about that old hound? He probably found a bone or something."_

_"But wasn't he chasing a cat? What dog would stop chasing a cat to chew a bone?" Years of fending for herself on the streets had made Sakura keen to changes in her surroundings and had saved her life more than once._

_"I don't kn-" Before the blonde could finish her sentence, a grenade was thrown in through a window and the resulting blast hurled both girls back and into the wall behind them. Large chunks of the wood wall crumbled down and partly buried them, but fortunately, it wasn't a load-bearing wall. Groaning, Sakura shook her head and searched for her friend, crawling over when she saw her. The teenager was unconscious, a large red mark forming on her temple. Sakura shook her, rasping, "I-Ino, come on, get up. We h-have to go . . ." Her voice trailed off as the man who had become her nightmares stepped through the door, the grin ever present on his sickening face._

_"Sakura," he purred, "how nice to see you again. I believe we ended our previous meeting a little too soon, wouldn't you agree?"_

_She couldn't talk, her tongue was frozen in terror. It didn't matter to him; he ushered his men forward and Sakura barely caught the tail end of his order, "Make her talk. I don't care how, just get that information from her by any means necessary. As for the blonde . . . kill her."_

Thankfully, the door to the building she was cowering in was kicked down loudly, jolting her out of the torrent of memories. However, the ones she had recalled were still replaying themselves over and over again in her mind, and as hard as she tried, Sakura couldn't hold back her tears. Weeping heart-brokenly into her arms, crossed over her chest, she also didn't hear someone approaching.

By no means was Kisame an unfeeling person and he had dealt with crying ghosts before, but _never_ like this. Not this choked sobbing, her face distorted in special kind of agony that one feels from the heart. It seemed that she hasn't noticed him yet and he quickly glanced around, his finely honed senses detecting no other ghosts except for her. He looked back at her. _'Sakura, huh? Suits you,'_ he noted her faint but obviously pink hair, just barely long enough to reach past her shoulders and tickle her collarbone. Her sobs hadn't lessened and while uncomfortable, he put his feelings aside for the pitiful girl before him who needed a strong personality right now.

"Sakura?" Her head snapped up, surprisingly bright emerald eyes staring at him, terrified. Kisame took a step beck to show her he meant no harm, "Hey, relax. I only want to help. Ino-san, Hinata-san, and Tenten-san are worried about you and want you to come home."

The trails of sticky sadness that coated her cheeks were ignored as she continued to stare at him, although her gaze had turned less terrified and more awestruck. "Hoshigaki Kisame, one of the Poltergeist Detectives. You're second only to Itachi, the leader."

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know that?"

Even with her episode having just passed, she managed to raise an eyebrow at him quizzically, "Who _doesn't_ know? You guys are legends to us."

Kisame couldn't keep the self-satisfied smirk off of his face, "Cool."

"Are my friends okay? H-he didn't get them too, did her?" Just as quickly as it had left did her anxiety return and she stood up, eyes wide in worry.

The large teenager grinned, pointed teeth peeking out, "Yup, they'll be even better when they learn the you're okay. Come on, kiddo, let's go."

Sakura wiped her tears away with the back of her hand, Kisame's cheerful and personable personality erasing the horrible memories that were pushed back further and further. Nodding, she followed him outside, barely sparing a glance back to the building behind her.

Finally, she left her foster father's house behind.


End file.
